The Cherry Twins
by Rebeccafairy
Summary: Sugar Rush gets an update that includes two new racers: Spritza and Coca. These cherry soda themed racers just can't seem to get on their feet at first. And their constant arguments does little to help with that. But when the other racers start mysteriously disappearing, can they agree to help their new game-mates?
1. Chapter 1

My name is Spritza Cherry. My twin sister, Coca, and I are part of an update that Sugar Rush got some time ago. We have become two of the most popular characters in our game, mostly because we have certain power-ups and abilities _together_ that the other characters don't have on their own. Of course, things weren't always easy for us. In fact, when we first appeared in our game... well, I'll just let the story unfold on it's own. So, I guess I better begin at the beginning.

* * *

Coca and I generated in the middle of the racetrack, just before the Random Roster race. Everybody was just staring at us (which was very embarrassing) and then a girl with raven hair and hazel eyes hopped out of her cart and walked up to us.

"Who are you?" She asked, sticking her hands in the pocket of her hoodie. A hoodie, can you believe it? Those things went out of style ages ago! I was eager to make some friends and start establishing myself in the social ladder here, but with her? No way.

"I'm Coca Cherry!" My sister chirped, ever ready to be friendly with losers. She clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her head to the side with a smile. "Who are you?"

"Vanellope Von Schweetz, at your service." The girl introduced herself with a mocking bow, a smirk plastered to her face. Then she turned her attention to me. "And who are you?"

"Spritza Cherry." I replied coldly, giving this ridiculous girl my best 'not interested' face.

She looked right back at me in silence, allowing the pause to stretch until I started getting uncomfortable before a smile stretched across her face once more. "Well, Spritza, I suppose you and Coca should meet the other racers." She turned and looked back at the anxious characters standing near their carts. She gestured towards us and the racers immediately swarmed forward. Each one introduced themselves in turn, though I didn't really pay much attention to most of them. Few of them even seemed worth getting know, and the only ones I had any real desire to strike up a friendship with were Crumbelina and Taffyta, both of whom seemed much more my speed in both style and personality.

In contrast, I could tell through the tenuous mental link my sister and I have that she was carefully memorizing each and every name. I could feel her determination to at least attempt to befriend every character here. It took me a few moments to even register exactly what I had just thought. Then I took a few more moments to comprehend it. A mental link? A quick dive into my own memories of my programmed backstory confirmed it. Apparently, Coca and I had always had a very strong relationship as twins, to the point that we can often read each other's emotions. As babies, this ability had resulted in us accidentally influencing one another in how we felt. Now, we could control it a bit better, being able to shut off the flow between us if we desired. Or at least, that's what my code told me.

I pulled my attention back to Sugar Rush as Coca nudged me. "Taking a dive into the backstory already?" She teased, wrinkling her nose.

"Shut it." I replied, punching her in the arm. She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to Vanellope, who had just finished discussing something with a small, green cough drop. I heard it mutter something in reply and then wobble off of the track. Then Coca and I walked up to her. "Okay, you clearly have some authority here. What's going on?"

The raven haired racer paused and then started scribbling something down on a clipboard the cough drop had given her as she spoke. "The Random Roster Race was just about to start. I sent Sour Bill to double check the Code and make sure you're in the race, and then we'll continue as usual."

My confused expression must have been pretty good, because when she looked up from the clipboard, her sarcastic demeanor broke as she dissolved into a fit of giggles. After she recovered, she quickly explained what the Random Roster Race was, who Sour Bill was, and how exactly one could check the Code. Once she finished, my sister nodded once and then muttered something about how very much she enjoyed being lectured on how games worked, to which Vanellope snorted and rolled her eyes.

"I'm gonna go check on a few things. You two just... hang tight." She walked off towards the other racers, leaving me with my obnoxious twin.

"Well, she seems nice." Coca said after the messy haired girl left.

"Yeah, so nice of her to just walk away and leave me here with my annoying sister." I rolled my eyes pointedly at her.

"Rude! I'm not _that_ annoying!"

"Yeah, and that crash you were in three years ago only caused a few scratches."

"Hey now, we agreed never to discuss that again!"

"So?"

She glared at me and opened her mouth to say something else, but then Vanellope walked back over. "Okay, you're all set! I'm assuming you already have carts?"

"Yep!" Coca replied instantly with a grin.

"What? No we don't."

My twin gave me a look and then turned back to Vanellope. "We do."

"And what makes you so sure?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips incredulously.

"I dunno, I just... feel it in my Code."

I was about to protest that that wasn't a good reason at all, but then a boy called from across the track. "Hey guys! Check this out!"

Coca turned and then grinned. She skipped in a circle around me, gloating that she 'told me so', and then ran over to the two carts that had just generated in their spots behind the starting line. "This is sweeeet!" She laughed as she hopped into the one that was obviously hers. It was a rusty brown bottle shaped cart with cherry pit wheels and two long cherry stems for exhaust pipes. "I'm gonna call her... the Pop Fizz." She grinned excitedly.

I wandered up and ran my hand over the edge of the other cart. Its body was the same shape as Coca's, but it was lime green. There was a sliced lemon for a seat and four, thick lemon circles for wheels. Simple, yellow exhaust pipes extended from the sides.

I must have been standing there admiring my cart for at least five minutes, when I suddenly became aware of someone talking in a low voice behind me. I turned around and gaped at the sight before me. A boy was leaning against Coca's cart and my sister was leaning casually towards him. She had her eyes half-lidded and was talking slowly and quietly. I immediately knew exactly what she was up to, and the trickle of flirtiness that reached me through our link only confirmed my suspicions. She laughed a bit and said something that I couldn't hear. Then, as I watched, the started leaning closer to each other. I'll admit, I panicked. I immediately marched up to them and yanked the boy away. I crossed my arms and glared at him while my twin stared at me in shock.

"My sister doesn't kiss on a first date. So why don't you back off for a while?" I said, still holding my death glare.

"Hey babe, we were just having a bit of fun. Loosen up." He smirked playfully.

"Don't call me babe."

"Why not?"

"Just don't."

"Oh, c'mon Spritz. Cool your lemons." Coca said, hopping out of her cart to join us.

"You are way too young to be dating."

She scoffed. "And you're not?"

I blushed slightly and opened my mouth to retort, but then there was a beeping noise and a flash of pixels, and suddenly an annoyed Vanellope was in between the three of us. "Would you guys cut it out with the sibling rivalry thing? We have a race to get started."

"Yeah, Spritz, we have a race to get started." Coca said, imitating Vanellope's cross body language.

I narrowed my eyes at her and slowly walked back to my cart. "Okay. Let's race."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everybody! I'm Coca! I'm Spritza's sister, obviously, and I'm the fun one! ...And now she's glaring at me, so I guess I'd better watch myself for a little while. Hee hee. Anyway, now it's my turn to tell the story!

* * *

I sneered at my sister as I hopped back into the Pop Fizz and started her up. A marshmallow attendant drifted down in front of the starting line holding a traffic light. I glanced at my sister, who was staring intently at the light as it flashed red, then yellow. Then the light flashed green and we all took off, zooming down the track. Spritza managed to get a little ways ahead of me, but then she slowed down to get through Gumball Gulch. I figured that was probably a good idea, so I lifted my foot a little off the pedal and slowed down too. I winced slightly as I saw a few other racers getting knocked off the track because they tried to zip straight through. As soon as I was out of the gulch, I slammed my foot on the gas again. I saw Spritza ahead of me, and I giggled slightly. With little effort, I sped past her, laughing gleefully. I sped up Cakeway, still giggling to myself. I glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed my sister following close behind me and grinned.

"Hey Spritz, your face is kinda red. You might want to apply some more foundation." I called over my shoulder. Spritza glared at me and sped up a bit more, but then something slammed into my cart, sending me tumbling over the edge of the small track. I screamed in terror while my cart flipped end over end as it fell. Then the Pop Fizz hit the ground, crushing it in several places. The last thing I was aware of was searing pain before I blacked out.

I woke up to a gentle voice repeating my name urgently. I opened my eyes and saw my twin hovering over me, her eyebrows knit in concern. The other racers were standing nearby, most with concerned faces. When Spritza saw that I was awake, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Ritta?" I said, wincing as I took a deeper breath.

"Yeah, Cokes?"

"...Do you think the Pop Fizz will be okay?"

She laughed, the first time I'd actually heard her laugh. Of course I had 'memories' of her laughing, but it wasn't the same. She had a pretty laugh. "Yes, Cokes, I think the Pop Fizz will be fine." Then she frowned again. "The doctors say you've got a couple broken ribs and some major road rash."

"Ouch." I replied, wincing again.

"Yeah, ouch." She cringed at my obvious discomfort. "Can't you guys fix her up?" She said, addressing the track doctors who were standing nearby.

"No Ma'am. Unless you want us to just give her a game over and let her regenerate, she's just gonna have to wait it out." One of them replied patiently.

"N-no, that's okay..." Spritza replied quickly.

"Ah, I'm okay." I pushed myself up on the stretcher I was on, grimacing at the small spike of pain this simple action caused, and glanced around. "So who won?"

"Your sister did." Vanellope said, crossing her arms and smirking slightly.

"I did?!" Spitza whipped her head up and stared at the raven-haired racer in shock.

"Of course! You didn't notice?" She raised an eyebrow, an amused light in her eyes.

"Uh... no, not really." My twin glanced at me, causing me to roll my eyes and shoot her a look of amused annoyance.

"Seriously? My Code, you're even more of a ditz than Candlehead!" Taffyta jerked her head at the birthday loving racer, who nodded briefly before gasping and letting out a cry of indignation.

Spritza narrowed her eyes at the pink racer and a powerful flare of anger hit me through our link. She stood up and marched over to the girl, her hands balled up tightly at her sides. "You're calling_ me_ a ditz? You're the one who was clumsy enough to knock my little sister off the track for no reason!"

I gasped dramatically and moved a hand to my cheek. "Taffyta! Knocking a new racer off a track? Shame on y-" I jerked and sucked in a quick breath through my teeth as another sudden flare of pain shot through me, and my sister's red hot fury quickly switched to concern with a hint of anger under it, though I knew the anger wasn't directed at me.

Taffyta shrugged casually and pulled a lollipop out of her jacket. She unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth, sucking on it for a few moments before addressing my twin. "Getting hurt is part of racing. If you can't take the heat, get off the track."

Oh, how I longed to walk up and smack her upside the head for that. Luckily, it seemed Spritza was right on the same thought process as me. She crossed her arms and set her worst death glare on the offending racer. "Getting hurt on accident and being pushed off a cliff are two very different things."

"That was pretty uncool, Taff. I remember my first game over. Not fun." Rancis spoke up, shuddering delicately.

"She didn't game over!"

"But she could have..." Jubileena added softly.

Taffyta stared incredulously at the other racers. "Are you guys seriously siding with these two noobs?" She glanced at my sister and sneered. "FYI, that dress, is _so_ last season."

"Oh, and your shoes aren't?" Spritza shot back, her glare never wavering.

"Oh Snapple!" I called out, snapping my fingers in a wide arc and then wincing again. "Ow..." I was happy to see that Swizzle chuckled at my antics.

The strawberry themed racer narrowed her eyes and took a step towards my sister. "You wanna go?"

"Yeah I wanna go! The question is, do you?" Spritza replied, staring hard at her. They had a sort of contest of wills for a few moments, and neither side looked like it was going to give in.

Then Vanellope did that weird pixelating thing she does and pushed the two racers apart. "Would you two stop it? Taffyta, you know we don't push people off the track on purpose after game time. Spritza, quit trying to pick fights. Now, I think we've all had enough fighting the past 15 years, wouldn't you agree? So quit acting like a bunch of diaper-babies!" Taffyta actually looked a bit embarrassed; she looked away in shame and muttered an apology. The other racers seemed nervous too.

After a few moments of awkward silence, I spoke up. "Okay, who are you? Like, really?"

"Didn't I tell you?" The racer asked, the normal humorous light returning to her eyes. "I am the Glitch and savior of Sugar Rush, the ex-princess and current president." She wrinkled up her nose and glanced at the racers around her. "And these are my loyal subjects." She continued a royal voice, which for some reason had a hint of a British accent.

"Oh. That makes more sense." I had to struggle to fight down Spritza's shock that threatened to overtake my own emotions. I shot a quick glare at her and she grimaced. After a few moments, the feeling subsided. "But... the president?"

"Yep. Princess just doesn't suit me."

"But it's part of your code. You can't just go against what your code tells me." My sister protested.

The other racers became a bit more uncomfortable at this and several shifted around awkwardly. The president, however, simply seemed amused. "Tell that to my best friend."

"What?"

"Nothing. It is getting kinda late, ya' know. I'm pretty sure everybody needs a reset." Vanellope glanced around and all the other racers quickly left, each heading to their own houses. The glitch then slumped over, suddenly looking very tired and even slightly stressed. Then she noticed that Spritza and I were still there. "Er, didn't ya hear me?"

"Yeah, but..." I shifted on my stretcher and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, right." The president chuckled sheepishly and walked over to me. It took some time, but we finally managed to maneuver me into Vanellope's cart without causing me _too_ much pain. Then Vanellope hopped into the drivers seat and glanced at Spritza. "C'mon, I'll take you to the castle. You can stay there till your house are built." She waited for my twin to get into her own cart and then drove off towards the huge white castle.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow, this place is huge!" Coca said as we stepped into the castle. She looked around as best as she could without injuring her ribs any more, only snapping her attention back to us when Vanellope started speaking.

"Yep! Please excuse all the pink -oh, I'm sorry, _salmon_- our previous leader had some... issues." Vanellope folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

"Your previous leader...?" I wondered, tilting my head towards the president.

"King Candy." She replied, a strange anger filling her voice. She looked away from my sister and I, effectively cutting off any more inquiries on the subject.

"...So, where are Ritta and I staying?" My twin asked after a few moments of tense silence.

"Anywhere you want. This castle has hundreds of rooms; I still haven't explored all of 'em." The glitch replied, her cool demeanor quickly returning.

"Anywhere we want?" Coca's eyes widened and I didn't need our mental link to tell she was excited.

"Isn't that what I said? Most of the bedrooms are upstairs." The president waved her hand towards a grand set of white chocolate stairs. "Make yourself at home."

My twin headed towards the stairwell without another word, moving as fast as her broken ribs allowed her. I rolled my eyes and bid Vanellope good night before following Coca up the stairs.

* * *

_I swooped past my sister, going a million miles an hour. The track seemed to dance beneath my tires, urging me to go faster and faster. Suddenly, a dark form appeared in front of me. I slammed my foot on the pedal and skidded to a halt, staring with wide eyes at the creature. It raised a fist and slammed it on the track in front of it. Tiny cracks edged their way across the track, extending from the huge fist towards me and my cart. 'Run!' my brain screamed at me, but I was frozen in place. I watched in breathless fear as the cracks reached my cart and edged their way underneath it. Then, they stopped spreading. All was quiet for a moment, and the giant lifted its hand away from the road. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, new lines started spreading from the first ones, lacing a delicate web of cracks. In a few short moments, I was on top of the arcade's biggest death trap. I stared in wide-eyed silence, fearful to even breath. Then, without warning, the giant slammed its fist on the road again, and the entire track started crumbling! I was falling! I heard my twin scream somewhere above me. "Spritza! Spritza, wake up!"__ I registered my own confusion through a haze and then I heard a giggle. "Spritza, what are you doing on the floor?"_

I slowly opened my eyes and groaned. My twin was standing in front of me, her hands on her hips and her nose wrinkled up with amusement. I pushed mself up on my elbows and slowly took in my surroundings. I had chosen one of the fancier bedrooms to stay in for the night, and consequently I was wrapped up in a heavy, rich green blanket on the floor.

"Did you suddenly decide you hate beds or something?" Coca asked, an amused light dancing in her eyes.

"Shut up, Cokes."

"Ooh, that's right. Not a morning person." My twin plopped onto the bed and curled her fingers around the soft sheets. "User, you picked the best room in the house!"

I sighed and sat all the way up. I ran my fingers through my hair (which now resembled Coca's rambunctious ringlets) and grumbled to myself. "Why exactly did I so desperately need to wake up?" I asked my sister irritably.

"Cause we've been waiting for you for an hour now! Candlehead is here, and she and Vanellope are making breakfast!" She replied as she rolled off the bed and landed on her knees next to me.

"Candlehead...?"

"You know, that girl with the candle on her hat!"

"Oh!" I leaned against the bed and closed my eyes for a moment. "Okay, I'll be down in about an hour."

"An hour?! But there's so much to do today!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Exploring!" Coca threw her hands out, nearly whacking me across my head.

I groaned and buried my face into the fluffy blanket. "I'll be down in an hour, got it?" my voice was slightly muffled by the layers of cloth.

"But why?" My sister whined.

"I have to deal with _this_." I gestured towards my crazy mess of curls, causing my twin to 'pout'.

"Aw, come on! It's not _that _bad." She flicked her hair, which was just as curly as mine, over her shoulder and huffed.

"Go away Cokes." I groaned, shoving her away from me.

"Fine! But if you're not down in an hour, I will drag you to the kitchen whether you're dressed or not." With that, Coca got up and marched out of the room.

I rolled my eyes, pushed the heavy blanket off of me, and trudged to the bathroom connected to the bedroom. After a quick shower, I straightened and then curled my hair into several large, perfect ringlets. I clipped in my lucky hair pin (a cute bauble that featured a lime slice, a lemon slice, and a cherry) and fluffed the ruffles that peaked from under my short dress. Then I checked the clock on the wall. Five minutes left. I chuckled and moseyed out of the room and down the hall. By the time I reached the bottom of the staircase, I could hear the unmistakable voice of my sister talking loudly in a room a few doors down.

"I swear, if she's not down here in one minute, I'm dragging her out of that room by her hair." She complained, her blatant annoyance trickling through our link to me. I smirked and stepped into the kitchen where she, Vanellope, and another girl were all gathered around an island in the middle of the room.

"Which would result in you waking up with lemons on your eyes tomorrow morning." I retorted cheerily, crossing my arms and leaning against the doorframe. Coca jumped and whirled around. Then she frowned and folded her own arms.

"Finally! I'm starving, and these two wouldn't let me eat until you got here!"

"I'm so terribly sorry." I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

My twin huffed and slouched against the counter. "Well can we eat now?"

The other girl, Candlehead, giggled and picked up a large pink bowl. "We can once I make the pancakes!" Coca groaned and buried her face in her arms while Candlehead started pouring batter into a pan on the stove. She hummed to herself as she cooked, occasionally throwing a comment over her shoulder as Vanellope, Coca, and I chatted. Soon she had a large stack of pancakes on a plate, but she still didn't let my sister near them. "Just a second!" She cried, giggling as she blocked the other racer from the stack.

"Oh, come on! Just one!" My twin whined and made another grab for the pancakes.

The birthday cake themed racer laughed and swatted at her hand. "I'm almost done! Just give me one more minute!" She pushed Coca away and back towards me and Vanellope. Coca crossed her arms and pouted, but she seemed to have realized that she was only delaying getting her food. Candlehead turned away from us and carefully slid three pancakes onto each plate. She placed a bright red strawberry on top of each stack, arranging them to show off the swirl of chocolate on the pancakes. "Okay, _now _you can have them." She grinned and stepped away from the delicately arranged plates. My twin didn't hesitate to zip over and grab a plate. She plopped onto a stool and began devouring her pancakes as fast as she could shove them into her mouth.

I rolled my eyes and chose a plate for myself. I sat next to Coca and supported my head on one hand, looking at my sister with an amused smirk. "You know, if you don't slow down, you're gonna get hiccups."

"Shu op." She said through a mouthful of food.

I chuckled and started eating my own pancakes, slightly overwhelmed by my first bite of food. I closed my eyes for a few moments to lock it into my memory. "This is great Candlehead." I complimented after I finished chewing.

The racer beamed at me. "Thanks. I love cooking-"

Vanellope cut in, looking up from her spot beside Candlehead. "And she's the best cook in Sugar Rush."

The baker blushed and nodded slightly. "So I figured you'd like a home-cooked breakfast for your first day here." She pauses and glanced around the castle. "Or, castle-cooked?" She looked to the president for confirmation.

"The castle is my home, so it's still home-cooked." She replied, speaking as one would to a toddler.

"Oh." Candlehead nodded, evidently not noticing her friend's tone.

Coca looked up from her now empty plate. "Are there any more?" Candlehead giggled and slid a few more pancakes onto my sister's plate. "Thanksh." She said after shoving another forkful of food into her mouth.

I made a disgusted face at my twin before looking to Vanellope. "So, about getting us houses...?"

"Oh, right! I almost forgot." The childish ruler giggled and shoved her stool away from the bar and dropped to the ground. "As soon as Coca's done pigging out, we'll go." Coca, of course, seemed to be in no hurry what-so-ever now that she had her food, and she relished in eating the last of her pancakes at a painstakingly slow rate.

"Oh, come on Coca!" I exclaimed, throwing a hand into the air and waving it around as she took another bite in an overdramatized slow-mo way. "Five minutes ago you couldn't get that food in your mouth fast enough! Now you're being as slow as Christmas." I slammed my hand back onto the counter and glared at my twin, who simply smiled and took another ridiculously slow bite.

Candlehead had long since left and the president had sank back into her seat by the time my sister finally ate the last of her breakfast. The moment the last forkful was in her mouth, I snatched the plate away and dropped it into the sink. "Thank Code! Can we go now?"

Coca giggled and hopped off of her stool. She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, her eyes darting between Vanellope and I. "Am I the only one who sees the irony of this situation?"

"Oh no. I see it too." Replied our smirking president who was standing near the door. "But I really don't want to wait while you two argue _again_, so lets go." Vanellope hopped off of her stool again and walked over to the door. She stopped at the doorframe and turned to smirk at us again. "Come along, my rrrroyal subjects."


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N. Sooo sorry for the super late chapter! I just had writer's block for a while, and then finals happened, and Christmas and I really just didn't have enough time to work on this! But don't worry, I'm back and ready to keep writing now! Thanks for being so patient with me! ~BeccaFae**

* * *

Vanellope glitched out into the hallway and halfway up the stairs before stopping to let us catch up. I giggled and shot one last teasing look at Spritza before running out and following the president. I heard my twin heave an exasperated sigh and then she came running after me. The president smirked and forged ahead, twisting through so many halls that I started getting dizzy. Finally, she stopped in front of an old, cracked door. Knocking out a quick pattern on the wood, she turned the knob to reveal... a closet. I bit back a laugh as Vanellope muttered something under her breath and closed the door again. She hastily knocked a new pattern and turned the knob again.

"Limes and lemons..." I heard my sister breath when she caught sight of the room. It was no longer a closet, but rather a dimly lit room, with dusty tapestries on the walls and furniture shoved haphazardly into the corners. A musty curtain blocked the sugary light outside from penetrating the room. In fact, about the only thing that didn't look old and rotted was a table that dominated the center of the floor. Vanellope smirked at Spritza's reaction and sauntered up to this piece of furniture, easily weaving around piles of sugar glass and pieces of splintered wood in her path. The surface of the table lit up and started glowing softly in various colors as the president neared it.

"Welcome to the map room." She said, spreading her hands and then tucking them into her hoodie pocket. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

Spritza glanced around nervously as we stepped into the room. "It's a bit..." She trailed off, evidently unsure how to phrase her comment.

"Broken? Old? Dangerous maybe?" Vanellope suggested, wrinkling her nose up at my twin, who nodded sheepishly.

"This is amazing!" I broke in, my excitement bubbling over, per the norm.

"That too." The president acknowledged, smirking again. "Okay, come check this out." She motioned us over and leaned against the table, waiting while my sister and I picked our way across the litter strewn floor. "This is a map of all of Sugar Rush." She explained when we finally made it over. She gestured to an area near the mountains that had a symbol for a waterfall. "This area is brand new. No prizes for guessing why." She chuckled and tapped the symbol twice, causing the map to zoom in on a huge, brown waterfall and the land around it. "This is where your houses will be." She waved a hand over the map and it beeped once before going black. She stepped away and crossed her arms. "The thing is, we don't have any plans for houses to put there."

"So, what are you gonna do?" I asked curiously, looking up at her. She smiled as if I had said something very wise.

"_I'm _not gonna do anything. But _you're_ going to design your houses." She turned a knob on the side of the table and the screen came to life again, but this time it simply showed two blue grid sheets. She tapped a few buttons on the screen and then scooped the papers off of the table (don't ask me how she did that, I still don't know) and handed one to each of us.

"B-but, how?" Spritza spluttered as she took the paper.

The president raised an eyebrow and mimed out writing something in the air. "You draw it, and then my construction crew will build it."

"I know, but, we're racers not architects!"

"Uh huh. I see. Well, if you prefer, I can always ask Taffyta or Swizzle to do them for you."

"What? Why them?"

"Because Taffyta spends half of her free time working on her car, trying to get it better than all the rest of ours. She has honed her engineering skills over the past 15 years, and I believe it would be very easy for her to design a good, sturdy house. As for Swizzle, he's a daredevil. He's constantly designing new ramps or machines for his crazy stunts."

"Oh, we can do it Spritz." I nudged my twin and wrinkled up my nose. "It'll be fun!"

She sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'll give it a shot."

"Alright then! Hop to it!" Vanellope clapped her hands and shooed us out of the room, shutting the door behind us. Spritza sighed again, this time more for a dramatic flair, and trudged back to her borrowed room, probably to adjust her outfit again. I on the other hand, decided to get started right away.

Grabbing a red pencil from one of the castle servants as he walked past, I skipped to the nearest sitting room. I spread my paper out on a coffee table and plopped down on the couch behind it. "Okay..." I tapped the end of 'my' pencil on the table for a few moments. "Houses, houses..." I muttered to myself, suddenly at a loss as to what I might want in my house. I must have imagined having a place of my own hundreds of times before, at least in my 'memories'. But now that I had a chance to actually have one, and design it all as well, my mind was blank. So I stood up, walked around, listed things that I liked, but it was no use. I didn't even know where to start! Finally I sighed with frustration and snatched my stuff off the table. Muttering under my breath, I stomped up several flights of stairs, down a bunch of hallways, checked all the similar looking doors until I finally found the right one. "Ritta?" I called, poking my head into the room.

"Hmm? Coca?" My sister looked up from a desk, lucky duck somehow got all the cool stuff in her room. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh... How are you doing on the house thing?"

Spritza looked a bit surprised, yet she smiled and waved me over to her. "Pretty good, actually. I don't know why I was so worried, it's actually really easy!"

"Really?" I moved to stand beside her and peered at her blueprints. "How did you even do that? I can't think of anything!"

"After all the years of wishing you had your own place?" My twin asked incredulously, looking up at me.

"Well, those weren't real." I protested.

"Yeah, but we still have memories of it." Spritza argued. I opened my mouth to say something else but then found that I couldn't think of a thing to say. So instead I just stared down at my sister's design. I felt her curious eyes on me for several moments, and then her voice cut into my self pitiful thoughts.

"Do you want me to help?" I glanced at her and then back to the desk before nodding slowly. She chuckled and probably rolled her eyes before grabbing my empty paper. She spread it over her own and then took my hand. "Look, all you do is draw a line, and go from there." She guided my in a simple, sweeping motion just above the paper. She smiled at up me and let go, signaling for me to try. I glanced at her and then looked at my paper. Taking a deep breath, I carefully started sketching my new house. And somehow, this strange new world felt a little bit more like home.


End file.
